Natsume Sōseki

Plan

                   Arrive very early and go and see the Kylie Minogue exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery. Alternatively go to see the paintings the Hireling Shepherd and the Lady of Shallot.

Which is the Lady of Shallot?

This year Kodansha International will be publishing a groundbreaking book in Japanese by British author Damian Flanagan called Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature.

Damian has already produced five books on Japanese literature, including Nihonjin ga Shiranai Natsume Soseki (The Natsume Soseki the Japanese Don't Know), followed by his award-winning collection of translations from Soseki's early years spent in Britain 'The Tower of London: Tales of Victorian London'.

Damian's talk encompassed:

- Soseki's place amongst Modern Japanese and World Literature

- Why Kokoro is Japan's most fiercely debated and popular novel

- Soseki's interest in British art and the Holman Hunt connection

This was a unique opportunity to hear about some of the defining works of modern Japan and to explore the extraordinary international influence of paintings held right here in the North-West.

If you would like to attend this event please contact the
JSNW events co-ordinator at: events@jsnw.org.uk or phone on 01925 728448.

Damian Flanagan talked about Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature

Damian Flanagan, literary authority and prize-winning translator, gave a talk about the books of Natsume Soseki, which he considers some of the greatest works in world literature.

Damian has himself produced four books on Soseki, starting with Nihonjin ga Shiranai Natsume Soseki (The Natsume Soseki the Japanese Don’t Know) in 2003, followed by his award-winning collection of translations from Soseki’s early years spent in Britain entitled The Tower of London: Tales of Victorian London in 2005. He has also written definitive critical introductions to such classics as Kokoro and The Gate.

This talk coincided with the publication of a further groundbreaking book in Japanese called Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature. Part memoir, part essay, it was an amusing and passionately written account of Damian’s fascination with the works of Japan’s greatest modern author.

Damian wrestled with ingrained perceptions of Soseki in Japan while simultaneously trying to reintroduce his works to the West where appreciation of the author is so slight. His talk focused on:

• Why Kokoro is one of the most fiercely debated novels in world literature, generating over 500 academic papers (and counting!)
• The depth and complexity in Soseki’s frequently overlooked classic The Gate
• Why Botchan is one of the great world comedies

This was to be an unmissable event for anyone with an interest in some of the defining works of modern Japan.

Sponsored by the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators (SWET) and co-sponsored by Kobe College Research Institute

Date: June 16 (Sat.) 3:30 - 5:30 pm

Location: Nishinomiya-shi Daigaku Kōryū Centre, 6F Lecture Room 1, ACTA East Tower, adjacent to Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi Stn

Fee: 500 yen for SWET members, 1,000 yen for non-members (No charge for Kobe College students and staff)

Reservations: SWET Kansai.

Elementary, My Dear Watson: The Translator at Loose in the World of Victorian London

Literary translation from Japanese to English usually involves introducing the mysterious, exotic world of Japan to the Western reader. However Japanese does not, of course, have to describe Japan at all. In this session he discussed the challenges and problems of translating Natsume Soseki's descriptions of Victorian Britain while considering how the Japanese language itself has been transformed since 1900 and what pitfalls this might have for the unwary translator. Some of the most basic aspects of Japanese have changed in the last century and sometimes bamboozle even the most sophisticated Japanese reader.

While taking a light-hearted look at some of his own translation agonies, and with numerous illustrative examples from his translation 'The Tower of London; Tales of Victorian London', Damian also explained how a key part of the transformation of Soseki's stories into English lay in understanding many peculiarities of the world described. Translation becomes a journey not only into contemporary Japanese literary styles, but into the social mores and economic conditions at the time when the British Empire ruled supreme. In the book he also included a translation of a pastiche Sherlock Holmes story (The Yellow Lodger) by the enormously popular writer Yamada Futaro. But how does one go about rendering a story like this in English and making it enjoyable and fun for readers familiar with the original Holmes stories? My dear Watson, all was revealed...

Damian Flanagan was awarded the 2005 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Award from Columbia University's Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture.

The Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University annually awards $5,000 in Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for the Translation of Japanese Literature. A prize is given for the best translation of a modern work or a classical work, or the prize is divided between equally distinguished translations.

To qualify, works must be book-length translations of Japanese literary works: novels, collections of short stories, literary essays, memoirs, drama, or poetry. Submissions are judged on the literary merit of the translation and the accuracy with which it reflects the spirit of the Japanese original. 

The prizes for 2005 were shared between Mr. Damian Flanagan for his translation of The Tower of London by Natsume Soseki and to Mr. Yosei Sugawara for his translation of The Gift of Numbers by Ogawa Yoko.

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Click here for Damian Flanagan's speech at the book's launch.